They chop it up every night in the studio. Sometimes they agree. Sometimes they disagree. Regardless of their take, TNT NBA analysts Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith always engage in spirited discussions about the league.

That's why it was a no brainer to reach out to O'Neal and Smith to provide their opinion on everything surrounding the Lakers. There's plenty to talk about, what with Mike D'Antoni becoming the Lakers' head coach, Phil Jackson getting passed over and Mike Brown getting fired.

Both O'Neal and Smith provided their candid thoughts on these topics and more in a roundtable discussion.

QUESTION: What do you make of the Lakers hiring Mike D'Antoni as their head coach?

SHAQUILLE O'NEAL: The Lakers said they were built for a championship run immediately, so I think people are upset they didn't make the logical choice in Phil Jackson. But D'Antoni is a fabulous coach. He's going to bring a lot of excitement back. Kobe Bryant is one of the best players of all time. Steve Nash is happy that he's back. He's going to bring a slight element of Showtime back.

KENNY SMITH: There were probably five or six candidates that were probably eligible with Phil Jackson leading the way. I'm not totally surprised at it. Mike D'Antoni has been on the Olympic team, has been around great players, coached Kobe and Dwight (Howard) before and has coached Steve Nash before. He's been on the staff. There's a familiarity with those guys. I think any player has enjoyed his style of play offensively. I think it could be a great fit.

QUESTION: What do you make of the Lakers' rationale that, aside from Bryant and Pau Gasol, the current roster would've had a difficult time learning Jackson's triangle offense?

O'NEAL: He gave you what, five championships this millennium alone? It's not hard to learn. When I played for him, we only had five additional plays. The good thing about Phil is you run it every day in shootarounds and practice. You meditate and think about it. Guys would be able to learn it.

SMITH: He gets a lot of discredit for coaching talent, but he always comes in when the person before couldn't coach the talent. There's something to be said. But you have to learn D'Antoni's system. There's only one guy who knows what D'Antoni's system is with Steve Nash. No one else played with that offensive flexibility. Phil would've had an advantage.

QUESTION: How does D'Antoni's offensive system fit with the Lakers?

O'NEAL: It's going to be good for Dwight (Howard). He's a great pick and roll big man. D'Antoni is an offensive wizard so he's going to keep everyone involved. He's the type that he's not going to yell at you for taking a shot. He just wants you to run hard and play hard. They're going to play with a lot of freedom out there.

SMITH: If you played 15 minutes in your older system, you'd only have three or four shots. His system, if you play 15 minutes, you'll get nine shots. Your offensive output doesn't become an issue in not getting enough touches or the ball not going in enough places. He eliminates that by the style of play.

QUESTION: How much concern, if any, do you have about the Lakers' veteran-laden roster playing at a faster pace?

O'NEAL: Being that he's not going to practice them a lot, he's going to want them to run hard in the game and guys are going to be loose. Trust me. It's not like when you play with certain people and they practice you five hours a day. Guys are going to be super loose.

SMITH: I don't think it's going to be an issue. When you increase the tempo, it actually helps you as you get older. You don't have to bang as much. All of a sudden, the double teams don't come as quickly because you're taking shots earlier in the offense. Dwight Howard won't get as double-teamed as much. With Kobe, you're not playing as much half court so he's not going head to head against a defense, he's going head to head against a particular player. It's kind of like what San Antonio did with Tim Duncan.

QUESTION: How fair is the criticism surrounding the defense in D'Antoni's system?

O'NEAL: I don't think it's fair criticism. I won three in a row with Phil. We never worked on defense, as when I played for the great Pat Riley. Phil gave us the ability to figure it out. Our defense always started from guys on our team that wanted to play defense. Championship teams win because of team defense, not because of one guy shutting down your guy.

SMITH: Because you're in transition, it's more difficult to play defense. The same way you want to get teams in 2-on-1 and 3-on-2 situations, you're in that. It is more difficult to play defense in that regard. But the fact is they have Gasol, Howard and Metta World Peace, who are three really good defenders. I don't think D'Antoni has had three defensive guys like that ever. You have shot blockers. That's the difference.

QUESTION: What do you make of the Lakers firing Mike Brown following a 1-4 start?

O'NEAL: I thought they were going to give him at least 10 games. But it didn't make sense to me that he has two of the best post big guys at the top of the key. If I was a coach, I wouldn't be doing that. I'd tell them whenever one big gets the rebound, the other has to be the first to get down the court. They're going to look at you first posting up instead of getting into a set. The Princeton offense is used for people with no talent.

SMITH: When I watched the Lakers in these first exhibition games and first five games, the grating thing to me is why are they using so much of the shot clock. To me, that was the obvious thing. When (Lakers GM) Mitch (Kupchak) hired D'Antoni, I go, 'He saw what I saw.' He wants to get more shots earlier in the shot clock, so he's going to get a guy that will make sure that happens.